Read first: genesis and ground rules

[Editor]

Herein all the previous correspondence [or will be soon - broadband connection crappy at the moment and no time to copy the relevant posts from the Science in Films and TV forums! Will update anon] ...please start a new topic thread for the story proper!

(I feel like I should be firing a virtual pistol, or lowering a pair of flags like a hot-pants-resplendent bimbo in the drag races of corny seventies films...)

[Mad Dan Eccles]

Thanks Jenny.

(And I'd shout 'JPEG!' but I fear Emma might hunt me down and kill me.)

[Dr Mike]

Methinks (or me-suspects) Emmanc has a sense of humour...

[tideliar]

LOL and suddenly the thought of Jenny in hotpants has three blokes who were decrying scientific mysogeny in another thread begging for JPEGs

[Mad Dan Eccles]

Heh.

OK, let's have a list of writers/participants and a two-line description of their major character, please.

[emmanc]

me have a distinctly wicked sense of humor which is lost on some people of a gentle disposition

As for a character how about:

Foreign post doc (or for that matter grad student) who doesn't understand the language much and is suffering from acute homesickness.

[Beatrice]

I will steer the role of Max, the accountant boyfriend of the cleverest female postdoc in the lab (any takers for that?). He hangs around the lab quite a bit because he works nine to five and it's the only way he can see his girlfriend. Everyone thinks he's a nerd but his presence is gently tolerated for comic relief. I suspect, though, that Max might end up surprising everyone by providing a vital clue to solve some problem that crops up...

[premonition]

Hello, all.

I'll take Janet, the unappreciated hardworking cleaning lady with no time for those pesky post docs, and only the vaguest understanding of the things she cleans around.

Any idea where this is set -- country, or hemisphere at the very least?

[Mad Dan Eccles]

Oh dear Prem, I just had a Hong Kong Phooey moment. And welcome

Location: this is a problem, because I doubt there's anyone place we're all familiar with. Let's make it a new research institute somewhere. Where? Hmm. . . As for plot, I'm wondering if we could do something like tackle the issue of suspected fraud? Or discovering the real purpose of this shiny new building.

I haven't decided on character yet, I'll see what gaps there are.

[Mad Dan Eccles]

Right, I had a think.

I have a notion of a story - I can't dignify it with the moniker 'plot' yet - and I don't think it should be revealed to the writers all at once. I'll sort out how to do that as we go. I might have to talk with Jenny Hotpants and get her to seed various ideas as necessary.

I'm going to get Premonition to kick off the real story, maybe after we've all written a post or three to set the scene. Her character is ideal for what I want to do.

Place-wise, I've changed my mind. One person at least should be familiar with the location, and the characters of the others can be just as clueless as they would be in real life! We can sort out out-of-lab experiences in this thread. So, I propose a new Wellcome-MRC building on the outskirts of Cambridge, UK.

Thoughts?

[The Prof]

I know that building well!
And welcome to the Forums, Prem. This is shaping up to be fun. In the spirit of write what you know, I could pull off the aging late-fifties lab head, if one is called for.

[The Prof]

erm, I misread that as LMB - and missed the 'new' bit. But I know its type! And I know the town.

[Mad Dan Eccles]

Heh. Prof, I think that's a perfectly splendid idea.

(and pm me - we can talk about your misunderstanding. . .)

[amy c.]

Oh, if we're still taking characters, I've got Megan, the junior-year intern from something thinly disguised as, oh, I don't know, Emory University, who's accepted at face value the PI's apologies that he can't offer much in the way of a stipend, but certainly there's plenty for her to do. He's forgotten to tell anyone else she exists, though. She tells people about her career goal, which I haven't decided on yet, and she has a pleasant, direct, unreadable gaze when people talk to her. It's a bit starey.

[tideliar]

Hmmm...does that mean I have to write as postdoc? that might get way too depressing

Although given the current state of my imagination I may have no choice...if it's not protein biochemistry I'm having trouble concentrating.

I wanna be Brad, an American doing his first postdoc at this place in the UK. He got his PhD (a bit of a struggle, but his PI writes a great cover letter) at a mid-tier US university...(trying to avoid obvious sterotypes like making him an Ivy Leaguer). I think he's gonna be a bit of a hick still though, and in for a lot of culture shock when he gets to Cambridge...